VTIFF Program Guide 2025 - Flipbook - Page 27
FILMS A TO Z
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YOUNG MOTHERS
ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardennes and Luc Dardennes
Belgium, France | 2025 | Fiction | 106 min | French w/subtitles
Directed by Charlie Shackleton
UK, U.S. | 2025 | Documentary | 92 min | English
Sponsored by: Frank and Ducky Donath
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26 | 12:15 PM | FH
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23 | 4:15 PM | FH
The paradox of Charlie Shackleton’s film is that it exists but also doesn’t exist.
Shackleton set out to adapt a fringe novel about the Zodiac Killer investigation but he
lost the rights to the book at the last minute. So instead, we get Zodiac Killer Project, a
curious hybrid documentary where Shackleton meditates on his passion project while
defiantly navigating loopholes in copyright law to tell as much of this sordid tale as he is
legally allowed, and then some. What he has created is a revelation, a brilliantly meta
movie that collapses the distance between investigative procedural and experimental
essay film, podcast and cinema. Beautifully shot on location in Villejo—with staged
scenes that take their cues from classic Errol Morris as well as structuralist Michael
Snow—charmingly chill, and sometimes thrilling in spite of itself, Shackleton has
snatched victory from the jaws of defeat and salvaged a truly original Zodiac movie: a
tragicomedy about obsession, artistic persistence, and escaping the true crime hall of
mirrors. ~OO
Cannes darlings Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes (two-time Palme d’Or winners) picked
up more accolades this year with Young Mothers, winning Best Screenplay. Their latest
deftly threads the needle between social realism and melodrama, weaving together the
stories of five girls living temporarily in a shelter for expecting mothers. From this center,
their stories branch out, bringing in people and stories from their fragile support systems.
All the young actors are astonishing, each authentic and devastating in their own way,
radiating interior lives that are both overactive and undeveloped. With a light touch, the
film draws out the ways in which their stories intersect, how the life-changing decisions
they are making now might ripple into the next generation, and how disenfranchisement,
addiction, abuse, and poverty tear at the social fabric. Young Mothers has a cumulative
power that represents the Dardennes’ filmmaking at its clearest and most empathetic.
~OO
HAPPY HOUR & FOOD VENDORS
Food vendors are located in the outside courtyard on the Battery Street side of Main Street Landing.
In the event of inclement weather, vendors may relocate to the Atrium on the third floor of the building.
Oct. 18-20
Oct. 21-22
Oct. 23-26
Oct. 17-26
5:30-7:30 pm
5:30-7:30 pm
5:30-7:30 pm
5:30-7:30 pm
Southeast Louisiana-style Cajun and
Creole dishes, including signature
buttermilk cornbread, whoopie pies,
cakes, and unicorn food.
Hello Kabab serves delicious Iranian
Style Kababs.
25% of all dessert sales support Planned
Parenthood and LGBTQ+ food security
initiatives.
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
Rustic, artisanal Italian fare featuring
simple, seasonal homestyle flavors
drawn from generations of tradition and
honoring the social and communal joy
of eating.
Cash bar in the Lake Lobby during
happy hour each day of the festival.
Serving wine and beer selections,
including the VTIFF pale ale, Cinephile.
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